The present invention relates to an optical bar code reader and, more particularly, to a control system for selectively operating the optical bar code reader in two different two operation modes.
Recently, the point of sales (POS) system has been developed, wherein coded information related to a commodity price and a commodity classification is printed on a tag card attached to a commodity article, and the coded information is read out through the use of an optical reader system.
Generally, the bar code is classified into two groups. The first group is the source marking type, wherein the bar code label is attached to the article by the manufacturers who manufactures the article. In the source marking system, the bar code size is fixed in accordance with, for example, the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS). The second group is the instore marking type, wherein the bar code label is attached to the article by a store who sells the article. In the instore marking system, there is a possibility that a specific code notation other than the standard notation determined by JIS may be used. Further, in the case of small articles, the reduced type bar code or the truncated type bar code is used, which requires a fine pitch reading.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a control system in an optical bar code reader for selectively operating the optical bar code reader in different operation modes.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a control system in an optical bar code reader for operating the optical bar code reader in a fine pitch mode when a small article is placed on the optical bar code reader.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objects, pursuant to an embodiment of the present invention, a first detection unit is disposed near a scanning window, which develops a first detection signal for operating the optical bar code reader in a coarse pitch mode when a large article is placed on the scanning window. A second detection unit is disposed above the scanning window for operating the optical bar code reader in a fine pitch mode when a small article is disposed on the scanning window.
A typical construction of an optical bar code reader which selectively operates the coarse pitch mode and the fine pitch mode is disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 226,864, "OPTICAL BAR CODE READER" filed on Jan. 21, 1981 by Syoichi Yasuda, Takaaki Okamoto, Kenrow Yatsunami, Shigeo Terashima, Masahiro Horii, Yoshihiko Iwamoto and Kiyotsugu Amasaki and assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The German counterpart was published on Nov. 26, 1981 as DOS No. 3,101,827.